


Fish Out of Water

by Brighteyes3216



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, The Little Mermaid (1989)
Genre: Little Mermaid AU, M/M, Mermaid!Harry, prince!draco
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-02-04
Packaged: 2019-03-13 10:40:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13568871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brighteyes3216/pseuds/Brighteyes3216
Summary: Harry, a war slave from a different pod of merpeople, dreams of something more than his pitiful life. He meets a pale man, a prince, and trades his whole world for a chance of freedom. Of love.





	1. Background

**Information about the Merpeople:**

The merpeople in this fic are not the mermaids from _Peter Pan_ , or from _Pirates of the_ Carribbean, or from Disney’s _Little Mermaid_ , though they loosely based off all of these. The merpeople here are born of my imagination. Merpeople mostly live in pods.

There are different types of merpeople. There are merpeople with tails like those of tropical fish. They are peaceful and not prone to violent confrontations. The scales of their tales are bright and warm colors, like yellows, oranges, bright green, white, etc. There are merpeople with tails of carnivorous fish, like tuna, sharks, orca whales, etc. These merpeople are very warrior-like. If they have scales, they are dark, cool colors. There are also merpeople with magic. They either have jellyfish tails or octopus tentacles. These are solitary people; no more than three live together at any given time while pods generally consisted of twenty or thirty. Ones with jellyfish tails deal in Light Magic; ones with octopus tentacles deal in Dark Magic, and some dabble deeper into the Evil Arts.

There are cultural aspects that are common among all merpeople: bonding and mating. Merpeople bond for life. All matings are acceptable: single sex and polygamous. The only restriction to bonding is from slaves; they are not allowed to bond to a free merman or mermaid, or to another slave. Due to their anatomy, Mermen are very similar to male seahorses, in the sense that they care carry a child. They are different from seahorses because they can produce eggs themselves if necessary.


	2. Chapter 2

              Draco walked along the narrow stretch of sand between the cliffs and the waves. The castle was only just visible, sitting on the cliffs with the waves crashing below. The moon shone down on him, big and bright.

              There was a cove where Draco liked to escape just around the bend in the shoreline. Court had been even more draining than usual, due to meetings. Treaty meetings. His father, King Lucius of the Kingdom by the Sea, wanted to arrange a marriage treaty with either the kingdom to the north, The Kingdom on the Mountains, or the kingdom to the south, The Kingdom of the Plains. Not that he really cared either way. Neither of the princesses held any appeal to him, but he would marry one anyways. Out of duty to his nation.

              He could just barely see the water through the trees when an ungodly screeching began. The sound nearly brought him to his knees in pain. And it kept going. On and on, almost like some demented song. Gritting his teeth, Draco managed to stand and stumble towards the cove. He cleared the tree line; there was a man sitting amongst the rocks. An attractive man: light olive skin, ruffled black hair, muscular back. Was the man the one making that noise? He went closer, to see if he needed help, but he stumbled over some exposed roots.

              When he looked up, the man was gone. The screeching had stopped. The only thing out of the ordinary was the ripples in the otherwise calm cove, as if something large had dropped into the water.

              Draco stood there for over an hour, waiting for the man to surface. He never did. Maybe he imagined it? Draco could have almost believed that, if not for the ringing in his ears. He turned to walk back to the castle. He did not see, near the mouth of the cove, the head that popped up and watched him leave.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 2:**

              Draco sighed. He had been returning to the cove every night for the last two weeks. He hoped to catch sight of the man from the other night. Nothing so far, just him and the empty waves. Thankfully, there had not been any more ear-piercing noises; his ears were ringing for two days.

              He was sitting amongst the rocks, partially hidden from view, but he had a clear view of the ocean. Everything was calm. The waves softly broke near the opening, settling as the water continued inward. He closed his eyes and just listened. Breathed. A splash echoed across the empty cove, followed by the sound of something settling in on the rocks.

              Carefully, Draco peeked his head out. It was the man! He was back. The raven locks gleamed like onyx under the moonlight. Water drops shined as they slid down the muscled back. The skin, still a gorgeous light olive, seemed to be marked with faint lines. From this distance, he could not be sure what they were. Also, between the moonlight and the water droplets, he thought he could see little flecks of red glittering over the olive skin. Leaning forward, squinting to see better, Draco’s hand slid across one of the stones, producing a grating sound.

              The man’s head snapped up, panicked emerald eyes meeting Draco’s silver ones. Draco could see the moment the man decided to flee, and Draco reacted.

              “Wait!” he cried out, scurrying over the rocks towards the other man, “Please, don’t go! I mean you no harm!”

              The man did stopped, though he still looked like a frightened deer. He was further out into the water, shoulder deep. Up close, he could tell what those lines had been: scars. Most were old, but some looked only a couple days old, barely closed. A sturdy looking black band wrapped around the man’s neck; from the back, his hair was long enough to hide it. Also, the bits of red were not his imagination: scattered across the shoulders, down along his neck, along his hairline. Ranging in color from scarlet to maroon. They almost looked like … scales.

              A twig snapped at the tree line. Both men looked towards the sound. Draco cursed under his breath; of course, tonight was the night Blaise managed to find him at the cove. He turned back to the man, only for him to be gone. Again, there were ripples. For a second, he thought he saw something red and large move under the water, but it was gone too quick to be sure of anything. With a frustrated groan, he turned back to the trees. There stood Blaise Zabini, his personal guard and best friend.

              “You have the most wonderful timing,” he drawled sarcastically, “What did you traipse through the forest for?”

              “The King wants you to meet him for a drink before retiring, to discuss the marriage proposals,” the dark skin man answered, the barest hint of a smirk on his face.

              Draco made a disgusted sound. “Of course he does,” he murmured as he picked his way across the rocks towards Blaise, “He couldn’t just pick for me; I get to pick who I’m saddled with for life.” Once he reached his guard, the pair made their way back toward the castle. Again, unbeknownst to them, they were being watched: a head half out of the water with a large red fin idly stirring the water behind it.


End file.
